Spaces Between
by LoveChilde
Summary: If there's any justice in the 'verse...Major Serenity the movie spoilers, ensemble, no 'ship


Mal

He shares a ship with all of them. Serenity, fast and his one true love though she is, isn't very spaceous and bunks are close enough together that Mal can hear River whimpering or Jayne…testing his firearms. He's gotten used to the sounds of sex coming from the other side of the bulkhead by his head, over the past years, and they don't bother him any now. Since the Reavers, those sounds are pretty much gone anyway.

Still, there's few sounds as don't carry at night, and few things he doesn't know. Inara can call him an oblivious ass all she likes, he knows she's wrong. The first ten, fourteen days, he heard her cry herself to sleep each night, siome mornings wake herself up with it. He never says anything, knows it'd embarrass her. Acknowledging that she's human, suffering, mourning, missing her dead husbend, would mean telling her he misses him too, a little. That's not something they do.

Two weeks later, the crying at night ends and the retching in the morning starts. Then, he knows he'll have to say something eventually.

Simon

It's just a regular checkup, aftercare for her back wound from the Reaver attack. She's healing well, and Simon's pleased, straightening from his machines with a smile when something beeps suspiciously. This time, when he looks up after checking it, his ees are no longer smiling, but wide and stunned.

"Zoe, there's-"

Her expression stops him, as does her raised hand. She already knows. "Is it-" He flounders, flushing that he could even think otherwise, "Are you-"

"Don't ask me that, Simon." Her voice has no emotion at all in it. "Don't ever ask me that."

He nods and doesn't ask. "I can't tell you much this early…but it's healthy so far." He offers at last. That it survived her injury at all is a miracle.

She nods as well. "Thank you." He's never seen this look in her eyes, pained and sad and hopeful and terrified all at once. He wants to do something or say something to help, but doesn't know what.

"I- I want you to come for a checkup in two weeks. And no drinking."

"I know." Steady as stone. He still doesn't know what to do. "Thanks." She turns to leave. He stops her.

"Zoe?" She stops, looks at him over her shoulder. "I'm- I mean, if you're happy, I'm happy for you." A brilliant smile flashes for just an instant, and when she laves he can feel a shadow of it lingering.

He wonders if she's told Mal.

River

River hears a lot. Even now, she hears two heartbeats where there used to be one. She says nothing, but she knows, sure as anything. Just because she's not as crazy as she was doesn't mean she'll say anything, at least for a few weeks. A few weeks of her brother walking around like there's pins in his shoes, of the cap'n pretending he doesn't know, and Zoe pretending she doesn't know he knows. It's all very amusing, and somehow Zoe scares her less now.

Seven weeks and three jobs later, she catches Zoe alone on ship's night, dropping down from the railing almost on top of her. Faster than even River can move, Zoe's gun is trained on her, and doesn't drop 'til her heartrate does.

"River. Don't do that."

"I could say the same to you." Sane she may be, but tact is superfluous.

"The hell does that mean?"

"You know." She gives the older woman a critial look. "You're starting to show. Starting to slow. Dangerous."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She tries. Gives it up as pointless, "I'm fine. Can do this."

"Sure. You'll kill her. Came damn close this time." She's picked up a few of Jayne's habits along the way. She might name her gun. "You can keep doing it…just not for long."

"You're talking _gu she_." Zoe pushes past her and starts walking away. River doesn't move. Three steps from her room, Zoe turns around. Her face is drawn and tense. River can hear her heart beaing, and under it a tiny fluttering second beat. "Her?"

"Uh huh. She'll look like him." River no longer questions how she knows.

Zoe doesn't reply. She turns and walks away, but the next time the others go on a job she stays behind to watch over the ship.

Mal doesn't say anything about it.

Inara

It takes her a while to notice, and when she does she wonders how she could've missed it. Four months since Wash died, and she's starting to show, stops going out on missions. When she's sure, Inara invites her for tea.

"I don't want advice, and I don't need help." Zoe is nothing if not blunt.

"Can I at least offer tea and congratulations, then?" Inara keeps her smile and stays polite through years of practice. Zoe looks sullen but nods.

As they pour the tea, Inara asks quietly, "How are you?"

"Fine." Too quickly. "Just fine."

"Good." Inara knows she sees Simon every two weeks. "If you ever need anything-"

"I will." She half smiles. Inara wants to see a glow in her, to see a feminine kinship, but she's never been very good with women who were older, more powerful and not clients. Zoe knows that- they're friends, but not close.

"Does the captain-?" Zoe nods before she can finish the question, and her eyes say she's not interested in continuing the conversation. "Good. I- have a few brews and exercises that might help when the time comes."

For a moment, Zoe looks as vulnerable and frightened as the youngest novitate at the Training House. Simon's given her things to read, but this is still a bigger unknown than any fight, any stretch of space.

"Thanks." This time she means it.

They don't talk about ity anymore, but Zoe's step seems lighter what she leaves, and Inara is satisfied.

Kaylee

Kaylee doesn't say anything, but one day after they come back from shopping planetside there's a suit of tiny clothes in Zoe's bunk, with tiny spaceships on them, knitted booties and a woolen blanket. The giveaway is the smudge of il on one corner of the blanket, and the strawberries embroidered on the booties. When she sees it, Zoe cries for an hour before she can pull herself together enough to go out again. Hormones, she tells herself.

She doesn't thank Kaylee in so many words, or ask how she found out, but smiles at her, all gratitude. The young mechanic's smile is bright enough to light up the whole ship. Little gifts keep appearing, no questions asked, and Zoe finds ways to repay them.

Kaylee loves children. Normally she'd ask endless questions and fuss around, but Inara tells her Zoe'd rather they didn't. She thinks that Zoe having a baby is about the shiniest thing in the whole 'verse. There haven't been babies around in three donkeys' ages.

She wonders what the cap'n thinks about it.

Jayne

Jayne's been around women enough to know when one's breeding, but he don't say nothin'. He's too scared Zoe's break him for looking at her like that, now Wash ain't around no more. 'Sides, if the cap'n finds out about it, he'll ground her for sure, and stick Jayne with the first mate's job which he ain't at all interested in.

So he keeps quiet, does his best to make sure Zoe gets the lighter jobs, stays out of danger. Jayne has the deepest respect for breeding women, carryin' a little miracle on the inside, even if he hates the noisy, smelly, troublesome and no at all miraculous result. If Zoe was gonna stay after the thing was born, things were gonna get right interesting on the ship.

He hopes Mal stays blind for a while longer.

Zoe

Six months in, and she knows they all know. She knows Mal knew first, when he stopped buying her drinks and started putting away a bit f his share of the takings after each job, 'for a rainy day'. He calls it Wash's share of the loot, gruffly, without looking at her, and she feels what's left of her heart melt a little.

She talks to her baby sometimes. Tells her abot her father as she sorts through the little clothes and toys Kaylee collects from all over, and paints the wooden packing crate that came with the latest package from Jayne's mother. She rmembers how the merc lugged it in, muttering something about it maybe coming in handy later. She tells her baby about her future family, even as she sends them out on jobs and waits patiently for them to come back alive. The life growing within her is more important, Mal and Simon (and surprisingly, River) have made that plenty clear.

Raising a baby on a ship won't be easy, she knows that, but she's not leaving. So far the alliance has left them alone. She hopes it'll last.

"Listen, Zoe." Mal catches her one day, maneuvering carefully around her bulk. ""If you want…we have enough put aside that we can set down somewhere for a month or two- maybe"

"Sir." She stops him firmly, one hand on his arm. "We keep flying. I'll be fine. This ship and this crew are for flying, and that's what we'll do. Baby'll be born to the black, just like I was. She'll be a child of Serenity, like all of us." But in a better ay, hopefully.

He nods quickly and smiles a little, and she knows they'll be fine. They leave it at that, and she knows that somewhere, sometime, a leaf soaring in the wind knows she's safe.


End file.
